Hours before the Supreme Court justices are set to consider once again taking up the issue of same-sex marriage, the White House declined to say Thursday whether President Barack Obama would welcome a ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
“The president’s been real clear about what he thinks on this and his personal views have been very closely scrutinized, as they should be,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. Nevertheless, Earnest continued, “I don’t want to get out ahead of any Supreme Court ruling that may be coming. I think you can probably anticipate what the president’s reaction might be based on the number of times that he’s expressed publicly what his position is on this issue.”
Earnest’s remarks come on the eve of the Supreme Court justices’ Friday conference, where, behind closed doors, they will consider cases challenging same-sex marriage bans in four states: Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Those same-sex marriage bans were upheld as constitutional by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in November, breaking with other federal appeals courts that have considered the issue and creating a split among the circuit courts. The Supreme Court has been asked to consider all four state marriage bans by plaintiffs in the four cases. With the exception of Tennessee, all of the states defending those respective bans have agreed the court should hear the cases.
Earnest told reporters that the Obama administration is supportive of the kinds of decisions that expand freedom and liberty, including a federal court ruling striking down Florida’s same-sex marriage ban, which took effect last week.
“That certainly was good news and consistent with the president’s view and he’s hopeful other courts will make the same decision,” Earnest said of the arrival of marriage equality to Florida.
But the White House’s refusal to explicitly state Obama’s hope for national resolution on same-sex marriage is puzzling, particularly considering statements he and other members of his administration have made in the past.
“There’s no need for nuance here,” said Fred Sainz, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign. “Of course the president wants a 50 state marriage ruling. Anything short of that would be inconsistent with the president’s own statements and actions. Once the president said that he thought this was a federal constitutional issue, he told everyone that he wants marriage equality across the entire country. The White House should just say that too.”
Obama’s outgoing attorney general, Eric Holder, has repeatedly stated that should the Supreme Court take up a case challenging state bans on same-sex marriage, the Obama administration will argue such bans are unconstitutional.
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“I expect that the Justice Department will file a brief and the brief will be consistent with the positions that we have taken in the past in support of same-sex marriage,” Holder told Pete Williams of NBC News in September. “I can’t imagine that we would take any other position while this president is in office and certainly as long as I am attorney general or anybody who is my successor.”
It is widely anticipated that the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage this term, with a decision likely handed down in June. Following the arrival of marriage equality to Florida last week, approximately 70 percent of the nation’s population — 216 million Americans — lives in one of 36 states, plus D.C., that permit same-sex marriage.
With Obergefell at risk and 32 states poised to restrict same-sex marriage, LGBTQ advocates push to enshrine protections at the state level.
By Maximilian Sandefer
August 6, 2025
On June 22, 2022, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Abortion rights were now no longer guaranteed nationwide as the issue was left up to the states. This shock reversal of over 49 years of precedent left reproductive rights activists scrambling as anti-choice state laws stemming from as far back as 1864 were revived and reinstituted.
As people's ability to access to reproductive care dwindled in conservative-led states, activists also found their footing. The 2024 election saw abortion rights ballot measures win in seven out of ten states. As we navigate a landscape where it will likely be a long time before we see any form of successful federal legislation protecting a woman's right to choose, state-by-state activism seems to be the driving force behind change.
The former Kentucky clerk -- and anti-LGBTQ culture warrior -- who went to jail rather than issue licenses to same-sex couples is now targeting the landmark 2015 ruling.
A decade after catapulting to right-wing stardom, Kim Davis -- the former Rowan County, Kentucky county clerk who chose jail over issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide.
Represented by the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel, Davis has formally asked the nation’s highest court to strip away the right of same-sex couples to marry.
A Mike Huckabee acolyte and four-time married fundamentalist zealot, Davis rose to fame in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple -- gay or straight -- after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down all state-level bans on same-sex marriage, including Kentucky’s. Ordered to comply, she instead spent six days in jail for contempt of court.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 59% of LGBTQ U.S. adults under age 50 who have never been married say they want to marry someday -- nearly the same as the 63% of non-LGBTQ adults who do. About 12% of each group say they never want to marry, while more than one-quarter are unsure of their future marriage plans.
By age, younger Americans who have never been married are more eager to wed than older peers, who are less certain and more doubtful about ever marrying.
Among those aged 18 to 29 who have never married, 67% of LGBTQ adults and 73% of non-LGBTQ adults say they want to marry someday. By contrast, just 48% of LGBTQ adults and 49% of non-LGBTQ adults aged 30 to 49 say the same, with nearly one-third in each group unsure.
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